Energy Efficiency in Buildings

By Chris Witte at Benchmark.

No-one's got money to burn, particularly in today's financial climate, but running commercial buildings is an expensive business. That's why there's more pressure than ever before to design buildings that encourage energy conservation and deliver energy efficiency, spurred on, of course, by Building Regulations and demands to improve the sustainability of the built environment.

But energy conservation and energy efficiency are very different. Energy conservation is all about reducing energy use through changes in everyday behaviours, like turning off lights when leaving a room and lowering thermostats.

Energy efficiency on the other hand is all about making sure that mechanical systems use energy as effectively as possible; using technology to reduce energy use without having to remember to do it yourself, such as improving a building's insulation or using more energy efficient light bulbs.

The reality is that more energy is spent on heating and cooling a building than any other operation, a typical office building, for example, will spend between 50-65% (of its energy) on this alone. This means that heating and cooling inefficiently can waste a significant amount of money and energy.

Because it is behavioural, energy conservation comes into play after a project is completed: largely it cannot be influenced by planning. However, desired levels of energy efficiency can be planned for at the outset of any project. Through careful specification of a building's external envelope, it can be possible to ensure that energy efficiency is maximised and heating and cooling bills and energy use are dramatically reduced.

For example, the recent innovation of complete envelope solutions which integrate the different elements to improve performance, build quality and on-site efficiency are really raising the bar.

By utilising complete systems from single suppliers, which have been fully tested as a single unit, building owners can now make sure that they are avoiding the risk of theoretical performance diminishing in practice and are being as energy efficient as possible.

Yes, these systems can be more expensive up front, but the savings they deliver over time more than outweigh those costs.

Budgets will always be a key driver in the specification process, but it's clear that innovation in building systems is delivering new technology that will improve energy efficiency, meet Building Regulations and payback dividends in the long run.